50 Miles of Extra Range For $10,000?

[goldburger]

I consistently see 350 miles in Conserve when taking road trips on the Large pack, and that’s pre-update. Will be doing a couple thousand miles next week though, so should get a much more accurate view of my range after that trip.

What’s your lifetime efficiency number?

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[jebinc]

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but according to Rivian the Large Pack gets 350 miles of range whereas the “soon to come” MaxPack will get around 400 miles. I’ve got an R1T Max pack ordered and my price for that is an additional $10,000. If I change my order for a Large pack I’ll save the ten grand. Yes, our here in the boonies extra range is useful to have - but for only 50 more miles why on earth would I stick with the Max? What am I missing?

Not a chance. People want the Max pack for towing or range. Towing cuts that 50 mile gain down to 25 and cold weather w/o towing will eat into that 50 mile kicker as well. Nope, not falling for it. YOMV…

 

[jebinc]

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but according to Rivian the Large Pack gets 350 miles of range whereas the “soon to come” MaxPack will get around 400 miles. I’ve got an R1T Max pack ordered and my price for that is an additional $10,000. If I change my order for a Large pack I’ll save the ten grand. Yes, our here in the boonies extra range is useful to have - but for only 50 more miles why on earth would I stick with the Max? What am I missing?

Oh, and it’s 390, not 400, per Rivian’s dual motor max pack announcement recently.

 

[ads75]

I was on the fence at $10k for 100 miles. Glad I switched back to a Large in September, and accepted R1T in November. Also allowed me to get the tax credit. As more charging stations potentially come online, the range difference matters less (at least in theory).

The $10k for “max” range may be worth it for some, but not to most. And that’s ok.

 

[SeaGeo]

Oh, and it’s 390, not 400, per Rivian’s dual motor max pack announcement recently.

That was for the R1S

 

[Budman]

I was originally a Max Pack order. Did the price\range\delivery trade offs like the OP and changed to standard battery. got my truck within six weeks of switching. Now at 12,000 miles on the odometer and 0 regrets. I get 350 mile of range in the summer and have no real need for the max pack.

 

[DB-EV]

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but according to Rivian the Large Pack gets 350 miles of range whereas the “soon to come” MaxPack will get around 400 miles. I’ve got an R1T Max pack ordered and my price for that is an additional $10,000. If I change my order for a Large pack I’ll save the ten grand. Yes, our here in the boonies extra range is useful to have - but for only 50 more miles why on earth would I stick with the Max? What am I missing?

Nothing. Only another fact that suggests you should not go big - I just charged seamlessly on a Tesla network, so you have more good charging options.

 

[Yossarian]

I was holding out for a max pack for a long time and finally gave in. I tow a lot (7000lbs twice a week) and wanted that extra range. I finally gave in and went with the large pack and it’s been enough. Range daily is not a problem, range on road trips is not a problem and the extra 25ish miles when towing really wouldn’t make a difference for me. If there comes a time when I need to tow more than 100 miles frequently neither battery pack size would be suitable anyway.

My towing is with a teardrop of only 2,000 lbs wet, but it is used for long-distance adventures, and many places we travel through have few chargers. We also spend a fair amount of time in the winter in areas where temps are often below zero. Given the intended uses of the Rivian, I thought that the Max would be essential, and had been holding on to a 4/2020 reservation for one.

After getting notified of the indefinite deferral of the QM Max, and not being particularly keen on becoming a beta tester for the new DM Max, I finally threw in the towel. The SUV has always been a better choice (we travel with two dogs), so my reservation is now for an R1S Adventure with the Large pack. I'm also now comfortable with the Rivian acquisition being a sort of grand experiment.

The hope is that the R1S towing the teardrop will be slightly more efficient than the R1T/camper combo. I've set a towing range of roughly 130 miles as the target. If we assume that about 90 of the 135 kWh Large pack is effectively available (assumes ~80/20 charge parameters), this would mean getting something on the order of 1.45 - 1.5 mi/kWh while on the road. That may be a bit of a stretch but I believe worth taking a chance on. If the experiment works, great. If not, we'll move to Plan B and they'll be a lightly used R1S in the "For Sale" listing on this forum.

 

[SACDFJC]

Can we talk about real range that people are experiencing to help decide if the Max Pack provides value?

Yesterday, I drove 290 miles around Northern California. This drive was on flat highways with speeds in the 75-78 range. Less than 50 miles of the drive was on smaller roads at 55. Almost no traffic. Weather was overcast and cool (48 to 52 degrees). I began the drive with 100% SOC and 347 miles of range reading in Conserve mode. My truck has 20" AT's on it. When I reached the RAN charger I had driven 245 miles and had 30 miles of range remaining. That would equate to 275 miles of total range (if I drove to 0 miles of range).

This pattern of battery consumption is typical for me. I never rely on what the truck is saying as "real" range. My range is always less than what the truck is reporting and my "right foot" is the biggest influence on range. I see a lot of people talking about getting 340+ miles on a charge, but I have to wonder if this is "real achieved" number or just what the range meter is stating. I have found that driving style, the roads you drive on, your speed, traffic conditions, the weather and your cargo all play into your "real" range. My R1T's real range with me behind the wheel is 275 miles in Conserve mode starting from 100% SOC.

Now back to the topic of the Max Pack. I had originally spec'd my order with a Max Pack. Like many others I jumped on a truck in the R1 Shop and gave up on the Max Pack. I am glad I opted to get a Large Pack truck. The charging network in CA makes it easy to find a charger. I have access to 3 RAN chargers on my common routes, I charge at work for free and I rarely pay for charging. Knowing what I know today, after driving my truck for 8 months and 8k miles, I would say people need to consider a number of variables before they decide if the Max Pack meets their needs.

In my case, I wanted the Max Pack originally, but I have learned that given my use of the truck, driving style and access to charging I don't need it. But if it were available when I bought my truck I would have purchased it. Good luck with your choice.

 

[Lawrence-of-Blaine]

That’s interesting because I texted my guide yesterday and Abby couldn’t tell me what the price difference would be.

 

[itselectric]

We really just need the RAN to add a couple hundred more stations.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

The 10k (14k Canadian) was a slightly easier pill to swallow when it was a difference of 86 miles (138km) but when the usable battery increased along with efficiency on the large pack, while simultaneously reducing overall capacity in the Max (not confirmed by Rivian, but speculation leads many to believe its 165kWh instead of 180) I had a difficult time seeing the value proposition.

I had hoped the efficiency gains would have been applied to the 180 pack, increasing it's range to 450ish miles or 730km. That would have been a game changer and well justified by the 10k. While Rivian promised to hit a 400 mile EPA target and will, I was hoping they would have blown past that.

I personally dropped the Max Quad in favor of the Large. I had my mind set on Max from the beginning, but as said above, the value didn't seem to be there any longer, even when cutting down to Dual Max. I also got tired of looking at photos and videos of Rivians and not driving one

 

[Jabbahop]

This is our southern utah/northern AZ playground and why I still have a maxpack reservation. This is showing CCS chargers available above 70kw (there are a few 50 kw chargers on the east but given the distances, those aren’t ideal).

It gets a bit better if Tesla opens their superchargers but currently they are 150kw with only 4-6 plugs so get crowded and the awesome country in the middle of the state is unserved. Apparently all of the $ from the infrastructure plan is for interstate charging so not likely to improve any time soon.

Here with Tesla superchargers and slow CCS

Maybe at some point Rivian will start helping those of us that bought into their Adventure Network and put them where we can access all of these national parks, forests, and monuments in Utah.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

That’s interesting because I texted my guide yesterday and Abby couldn’t tell me what the price difference would be.

Did you not get that email? If not, then I assume you weren't configured to have a Max Quad originally? That's where pricing gets funky for anyone with a large quad looking to convert to a dual max, they didn't touch on pricing, but for the most part have stated anyone looking to change, old preorder or new, would be paying full today pricing on the option.

The only reason for the lesser price dual max offer is to more or less not piss off those of us that had been firmly encamped on the Max Pack and it was meant to coax us down while offering an incentive.

 

[BrentInCO]

Oh, and it’s 390, not 400, per Rivian’s dual motor max pack announcement recently.

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